


A Small Problem

by ragewerthers



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Humor, Oh when they were young, Ridiculousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:02:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22223002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ragewerthers/pseuds/ragewerthers
Summary: When something seems to be troubling Regis, Clarus takes it upon himself to find out what it is.  Sadly... it leads to some truths and a small problem that has gone on for too long.
Relationships: Clarus Amicitia & Cor Leonis & Regis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 10
Kudos: 43





	A Small Problem

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic that my friend bgn846 was kind enough to let me write! She had the idea of poor Regis getting upset over something that is well beyond his control.
> 
> Cor's height.
> 
> I hope that everyone who reads this can enjoy a little ridiculousness thanks to these boys!
> 
> You can also find me on tumblr at ragewerthers.tumblr!
> 
> Enjoy! :D

Regis… was pouting.

And not just a bit of a sulk. Oh no.

The young Prince literally looked like someone had rained on his parade, stolen all his Christmas gifts and burnt his birthday cake all in one go.

Clarus had been trying to puzzle it out all morning and so far he’d come up with nothing. He prided himself on being able to figure out what was wrong with the man. Or in better instances stopping things from making him seem this way in the first place. However, sometimes his Highness could be… dramatic. And that was saying it in the kindest way possible.

So, here he was, walking alongside his Highness with no discernible destination in mind, still trying to figure out what had upset the man.

“Clarus,” Regis’s quiet and detached voice spoke up for the first time this morning, making the young Shield snap his attention back to the present.

“Yes, Highness?” he asked, a hint of uncertainty in his voice as he heard that particular tone.

“How old is Soldier Leonis?” Regis asked, his eyes still staring straight forward as they continued on.

For a moment Clarus wondered if he’d misheard him or that he was joking at asking such an odd question, but his entire demeanor seemed to emanate that no… he was not.

“He’s… eighteen, Highness. You’re the one who planned his party last month… remember?” he said, starting to worry that something was  _ seriously _ wrong with the Prince.

“Mm… yes. So I did,” Regis said offhandedly, though the news of Cor’s age didn’t seem to lighten his mood anymore. “Then it really  _ doesn’t _ make any sense.”

Clarus’s brow furrowed as he heard that and he turned to regard Regis once more, sadly curiosity winning out as he saw Regis losing himself once more to his foul mood. “I’m sorry, but… what doesn’t make sense?” he asked carefully, not sure he was ready for the answer.

Regis’s expression turned into a scowl and for a moment his eyes flashed dangerously with an influx of magic he had gotten better at controlling.

“Why the hell does he keep growing?!” the Prince finally shouted, stopping his aimless walking and turning to face Clarus with a look of utmost annoyance, dejection and fury.

No… Clarus really wasn’t ready for that answer.

He was so unprepared that sadly his response was less than composed.

Before Clarus could even pretend to school his features the most unbecoming laughter escaped him. He was laughing so hard that he had started to double over, only held up by leaning against the hallway wall.

“Oh my gahahahads! Th-that’s what’s got y-you… you looking lihihihike… ahahaha!” Clarus tried to speak, but the hilarity of the moment overtook him once more and before long he was laughing so hard he was crying. His normally deep voice pitched higher with mirth.

“Stop it! Stop laughing this instant! I…. I command it!” Regis spluttered, the dark expression from before now replaced with embarrassment and annoyance of a different sort. Sadly this only seemed to make the Shield wheeze and Regis groaned forlornly. “Come on, Clarus! It’s not funny!”

“Y-Yehehes it is!” Clarus giggled, actually  _ giggled,  _ wiping at his eyes as his shoulders still shook with mirth. A few passing councilmen glanced down the hallway that Regis and Clarus were standing in, giving them both odd looks before moving on and leaving Regis more livid.

“No! No it’s not! It’s a serious problem and aren’t you supposed to help me when I have serious problems?” Regis hissed, trying to keep his voice down so the nosy spectators moved on past, mumbling something that Regis was positive had to do with a giggling Shield.

Slowly Clarus started to reign himself in, his breathing still a little stuttered and cheeks rosy as he stood back up to his full height.

Looking down on Regis and seeing the absolute annoyance written in every feature didn’t help him trying to keep his composure.

“S-So… Highness. What can I do to help you with your…  _ small _ problem?” he asked, a wide shit eating grin spreading over his face and making Regis’s cheeks turn red.

“You’re a horrible human being and you should feel horrible!” Regis spat, turning on his heel and beginning to walk away as Clarus chuckled and moved after him, reaching out to grab his shoulder.

“Hey… I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he offered, his smile softening as Regis finally stopped and turned around. “Honestly though. The reason you’ve been in a funk all day is because… Cor is taller than you?” he asked lightly, watching as Regis shifted a bit under the look he was being given.

“I… well... ,” he mumbled, scratching the back of his neck before sighing and ducking his head. “Yes. But it’s not just that, Clarus! He  _ keeps _ growing! Like a weed! He’s already surpassed me and he should’ve stopped, but it just keeps going and going! Hmm… do you think I can tell the cooks to stop giving him milk?”

The question seemed so genuine that Clarus had to look away to try and keep his composure from cracking once more, a little snort escaping him regardless.

“Clarus!”

“S-sorry, sorry. It’s just… why is this bothering you? My height has never bothered you has it? I’m at least a good foot and a half taller than you,” Clarus said with a little chuckle, though his smile faltered a bit as he saw the way Regis seemed to be looking everywhere but at him.

“Regis?”

“Hmm? Oh… no I… it’s never bothered me. Not in the least,” he tried to say casually, but Clarus was now far more aware that something was amiss.

“Your Highness?”

Silence.

“Your Grace?”

More silence.

“ _ Regis. _ ”

“Okay, fine! It… did bother me a bit,” Regis mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and still refusing to meet Clarus’s gaze.

“Please tell me you didn’t try to keep the cooks from giving me milk or anything.”

Silence.

“Oh my gods! Are you kidding me!” Clarus shouted.

“I didn’t do that to you okay? Do… Do you remember that month where I had an incredibly heavy briefcase filled with important documents that I had to take with me to all of my meetings and social engagements? I was about thirteen?” Regis asked, looking a bit ashamed.

Clarus didn’t like where this was going.

“I do. I was the Eos’s most tired eighteen year old because of that thing. I remember having to lug that around and I almost threw my back out  _ twice _ ! What about it?” he asked, his eyes narrowed into slits.

Regis cleared his throat, tugging at the tie around his neck. “I may have… fibbed. Just a bit.”

“Do elaborate,  _ Highness. _ ”

Regis actually flinched at that. “I… didn’t have any important documents so much as… many, many books in there to weigh it down.”

“What?!”

“I thought it might give me at least a chance to catch up with… where are you going?! Get back here!”

Clarus had turned and started to storm off back down the hallway. “You tried to weigh me down when we were kids to keep me from growing!”

Regis was trying to catch up to the mans longer stride and now it was his turn to reach out and grab onto Clarus’s shoulder, though he did have to stretch a bit.

“Hey! It didn’t work, did it? You still outgrew me and now Cor is doing the same!”

Clarus had stopped by this point and gave a heavy sigh, a flicker of anger still remaining, but he had to remember… this was  _ years  _ ago and Regis had literally been a child. Closing his eyes for a moment he took a breath before turning around to face the man he had vowed to protect with his life.

Even if he had been… and still was… a little shit.

“First of all, you need to know that you are an absolute idiot for doing that,” Clarus said quietly, getting Regis to nod in agreement. “However… looking back it is hilarious that a thirteen year old got me to do that without my knowing. So. I have to at least give you that.”

Regis couldn’t help giving a little chuckle at that and nodded. “Still… sorry about that,” he offered and Clarus finally offered him a smile of his own.

“It’s fine, Highness. Really. But… you’re older now and, I had hoped, wiser. So why are you so fixated on Cor getting taller than you? It’s just genetics? Mors isn’t a tall man either,” he said with a shrug and Regis scoffed a little.

“It’s annoying because I look like a valley between two mountains walking between you two! If he doesn’t stop growing then I’m literally going to look like a troll Prince!”

“Who’s a troll Prince?” a voice popped up from behind Regis and glancing up Clarus’s smile only grew.

“Cor! Just the man I was hoping to see,” he said, seeing a panicked look appear in Regis’s eyes as the Prince spun around to greet Cor in return.

Coming chest level to the man and having to look up at him.

Cor gave the Prince a salute, his young face still holding that stoic expression that it generally had. “”Your Highness. Lord Amicitia,” he said in greeting before finally allowing a little smile to appear. “But really… what about a troll Prince?”

“I’m afraid that our fearless leader… our future monarch… our bastion of hope… has a, dare I say,  _ small  _ problem,” Clarus said, watching as Regis snapped his head back to glare at him.

After learning about the suitcase incident from years ago he figured it was about time to get some payback.

Cor looked between the two, confusion on his face even as a little smile remained. “Okay? Is there… something I can do to assist?” he asked.

“It’s a ‘ _ little _ ’ difficult to say if you can,” Clarus continued, still feeling the glare upon him. Oh this was fantastic. “I think Regis would be the one to say if you could help a’ _ tall _ ’. Wouldn’t you say so… your ‘ _ High _ ’-ness?”

“Why are you doing this to me?!” Regis hissed, Clarus soon fixing him with a narrowed expression that actually made the Prince shrink back a bit.

“ _ Suitcase, _ ” Clarus growled out in reply.

Needless to say Cor still had absolutely no idea what was going on and for a moment, wondered if the two had been hit with some sort of status effect from an unknown assailant. First he walked up on the two of them talking of troll Princes and now Clarus was speaking oddly, the Prince looked confused and upset and now the Shield was talking about… luggage?

No… something was definitely wrong here. Taking out his phone for a moment he shot a quick text to Monica at the Citadel’s medical ward before pocketing his phone and putting on his least scary smile, trying to seem placating. He would’ve used his ear piece to communicate, but honestly, with how these two were acting he worried it wouldn’t just frighten them more.

“Okay you two,” he said in the calmest voice he could, putting a hand on each of their shoulders and gently starting to push them back down the hall. “Why don’t we go for a little walk? We can visit the nice lady at the medical ward. You remember Monica, right?”

It was then that both Clarus and Regis broke out of their glaring match, feeling how they were being moved along by the young Marshal.

“Cor? Cor what are you doing?” Clarus asked as he tried to stop, only to be pushed along a little more firmly, for the first time in awhile realizing that Cor was indeed actually starting to get a bit taller than himself. Perhaps even a bit broader.

“It’s going to be okay,” Cor spoke slowly and calmly, giving them each a squeeze to their shoulders as his eyes flickered around the hallway for any dangers that may arise. “I think you two may have been hit with a status effect. We’re going to go for a little check up with Miss Monica.”

“What?! We’re fine, Cor. Clarus is just an ass and doesn’t know how to keep his  _ big  _ mouth shut!”

“Hey! You started this, Prince Pipsqueak!”

“Cor! Cor did you hear what he just called me?!”

Cor glanced between the two and continued to move them along the hall, raising a hand to touch his earpiece. “Monica. Cor Leonis. I think the effect may be age regression. Will keep you posted,” he spoke quietly as the two continued to bicker as he pushed them along. “We may have a… small problem.”


End file.
